St. Louis Police Car T-Bones Pontiac on Chippewa (Update w/Police Summary)

Earlier this afternoon a St. Louis police car t-boned a silver Pontiac Bonneville on Chippewa just east of Hampton. The Pontiac ended up in the parking lot of the corner Walgreen’s store after running through a planter area. I do not know any details of the accident at this time. I have contacted the Director of Public Relations for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Dept but at this time he has not responded (it is a lovely Sunday afternoon). When I hear back from the police I will post an update at the end of this post.

In the image above you can see the damage to the Pontiac and where it ended up, both front airbags went off.

Above is the view seen from across the street — at first I could not tell what the police car had hit.

Both cars are loaded on flat-bed wreckers while the fire department hoses off the fuels fluids and debris from the accident. A local TV station has a camerwoman filming while spectators look on. On a positive note I was glad to see that street trees finally got planted in front of the Dobbs location on Chippewa.

I hope everyone in both vehicles are OK. I don’t know enough about accidents to determine if this was a low-speed or high-speed accident. I’m very curious to know if the officer(s) in the patrol car was wearing a seat belt — I seldom see St. Louis Police doing so. In the county it is a mixed bag — some do and some do not. I know officers tend to get in and out of their car a lot but I would like to see them wearing their seatbelts for their own safety.

UPDATE 6/18/2007 @ Noon:

This just in…

INCIDENT:   DEPARTMENT ACCIDENT
LOCATION:  5845 Chippewa
DATE/TIMES:  06/17/2007  11:46
NEIGHBORHOOD: South Hampton
Department Vehicle PPO Phillip Cornell
W/F, 6/1/1918

SYNOPSIS:  Officer Cornell was driving west on Chippewa approaching Hampton when Vehicle #2, traveling east on Chippewa, attempted to make a left turn onto the Walgreens’ parking lot, turning into the path of the officer.  He was unable to stop and struck the vehicle.  Both drivers were conveyed to Barnes Hospital for treatment.  Officer Cornell was treated for injuries to his right arm, legs and chest.  He was listed in stable condition.  Driver #2 was admitted with multiple abrasions to her face and a pelvic fracture.  She was listed in stable condition.  The Department Vehicle sustained major front end damage; Vehicle #2 sustained major side damage.

A Funny Look at Real Estate Flipping

Yesterday a friend turned me onto a tv show on the web called Flipper Nation, a very humorous look at those who play the real estate flipper game. The show pokes fun at everyone from the future “co-millionares” to the mortgage broker, the general contractor, the landscaper and even the real estate agent.

One line from the show which has a lot of truth in it, “You know what they say. Today’s illegal immigrants are the house buyers of tomorrow…And there is a lot of them coming in right now.”

This web-based TV show, with three episodes under 10 minutes each, is free. You can even subscribe in iTunes so that new editions will download automatically when available (although the last episode is from January).

Check it out at www.flippernation.com.

Suspicious Fire Destroys Construction Site

Officials are calling the fire suspicious but we all know the reality, it was arson. Like three construction sites that went down in flames last year, this project was basically framed out but without drywall and other finish materials that would have helped to prevent a fire from spreading so quickly. The timing was likely very calculated.  Click here to read my post from one year ago today on those fires.

Above, site as of June 3, 2007. Taken from behind Arby’s looking east.

The project involved nearly 200 apartments along with some street-level retail along Lindell, on the site of the former Salad Bowl restaurant, at 3949 Lindell (google map). While in the area on the 3rd of this month I got some in-progress pictures for use later in a post when the project was finished. … Continue Reading

Planning Commissioners Journal Editor/Publisher in St. Louis

Wayne Senville, the publisher & editor of the quarterly national publication, the Planning Commissioners Journal, is doing a 6-week road trip across the country along US Route 50 (see prior post). Today Senville was in St. Louis after spending yesterday in O’Fallon IL.

We spent about five hours today walking and talking about the state of planning, common issues faced by planning commissions and citizen planners. I gave Senville a good tour of St. Louis, focusing mostly on downtown but with lunch at Crown Candy Kitchen. I tried to balance out the good with the bad, and we have plenty of both.

Early this morning on the way to meet Senville I detoured from my normal Broadway route to take in the riverfront — I hadn’t been down there in like a year. Why go, I’ve seen the arch and I’ve seen the muddy river. I was surprised by the great selection of bikes to rent, including the 4-wheel pedal vehicles.

I really love some of the remaining warehouse buildings in the north riverfront area.

I checked out the new Pinnacle Casino under construction. Part of the building complex, straight ahead, seems to have made an attempt at giving a good face to the street — we’ll see how it turns out in the end, it looks like it may have a raised sidewalk about the normal street level. However, I simply cannot be sure at this stage.

I met Wayne at the Gelateria at Washington and 14th. I had given him directions from his hotel in O’Fallon via East St. Louis and Eads Bridge. His question to me way, “What was that big thing over the street?” That would be the St. Louis Centre bridge over Washington Ave that has yet to come down. We walked down that way to see the taxi cabs still parking on the public sidewalk, saw a number of parking garages (hard to avoid), including the new 9th street garage that DESCO built in place of the National Register listed Century Building — you know the one clad in marble (vent: f’ing bastards). At least some wealthy suburbanites want to give the gift of public art to the city, not more parking garages.

We, of course, had to take in the Gateway Mall as that is a timely planning discussion. Then it was time for lunch and what better place than Crown Candy?

After lunch we ran into Jane Smith, an Old North St. Louis resident and local group administrative assistant. Smith shared her thoughts on the neighborhood (a resident since the late 70s) and about the exciting plans to de-mall the mall. In the early 90’s I lived across the street from Jane and her husband Bruce on Sullivan. Bruce and Jane have since bought one of the new homes on North Market street. Jane is one of the organizers of the new Old North Farmer’s Market that started a couple of weeks ago. Jane indicated some of the final funding for the renovation of the buildings on and near the old mall came in last Friday. Funding for the actual streetscape is still in the works.

Wayne and I walked the 2-block mall and another 2 blocks down to North Market St. where the neighborhood group along with RHCDA have collaborated on renovations of existing buildings as well as new in-fill construction — a good example of how you don’t need to clear-cut an area entirely.

After Wayne dropped me back off downtown at my scooter I went over to City Grocers to get a few things before returning home. A woman had just parked her 125cc Yamaha Vino so we made that area of 10th Street an unofficial scooter zone.

And finally workers were installing a new sign for the J. Buck’s restaurant which opens next week. I had a great time meeting and talking with Wayne Senville. His journal does a great job of educating citizens interested in planning issues, such as those who get appointed to planning commissions.

Click here to see all 112 photos from today.

Saint Louis’ Former Pruitt-Igoe Site Should Be Developed as a Green Neighborhood

The long abandonded site of the former Pruitt-Igoe urban renewal project, imploded in the early 1970s, should be redeveloped into a LEED-Certified green neighborhood. Yes, 35 years after being vacated and imploded, the majority of the site remains vacant (excluding weeds and trash).

For those not familiar with the new green lingo, LEED stands for “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” and is part of a rating system created by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). Originally started as a means for rating new buildings, the USGBC (in conjunction with others) is developing a program known as LEED for Neigborhood Development.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Many, if not most, of the readers here have seen the above image, the classic symbol used to argue the failure of modern architecture and of high-rise public housing. To me it is more importantly a symbol of the failure of modern urban planning where compact, connected, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods were replaced with disconnected superblocks, unpleasant to those who traversed the area. This post is not about debating the design or causes of failure of the Pruitt-Igoe complex that once occupied nearly 60 acres on St. Louis’ near north side (google map), this is about what should happen on the site now.

As the headline indicates, I want to see the now overgrown site developed into a “green” neighborhood, following the USGBC’s LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System, still in a pilot stage at this writing (download 157-page PDF here). In these rating systems they have required items for all projects and then a point system to determine at which level the project is certified. Here are some highlights (various terms quoted from full document):

In the area of Smart Location & Linkage points can be earned through brownfields redevelopment, reduction in auto dependence, bicycle networks, proximity of housing to jobs and schools. Under the area of Neighborhood Pattern & Design prerequisits include open community (no gates) and compact development. Points can be earned through diversity of uses, diversity of housing types, a portion of the project as affordable housing (rental and for sale), a reduced parking footprint, walkable streets, access to public spaces, universal access, and even local food production. Additional points can be earned by having certified green buildings, building reuse and adaptive reuse, minimal site disturbance in both site design and construction. Points can also be given for the solar orientation and advanced technologies such as district heating & cooling. These are all explained in great detail in the full document.

In each of these areas they outline the number of possible points that can be earned toward certification and at what level. In each area they spell out an intent, the requirements and the various submittals necessary to obtain certification. As an example, under ‘Walkable Streets’ within Neighborhood Pattern & Design the intent is to,

Provide appealing and comfortable pedestrian street environments in order to promote pedestrian activity. Promote public health through increased physical activity.

The intent is straightforward but the requirements are lengthy and include many project-specific calculations. However, a few of the requirements among this list are pretty logical:

a) A principal functional entry of each building has a front facade that faces a public space such as a street, square, park, paseo, or plaza.

c) Continuous sidewalks or equivalent provisions for walking are provided along both sides of all streets within the project. New sidewalks must be at least 4 feet wide. Equivalent provisions for walking include woonerfs and footpaths.

d) All streets along non-residential or mixed use blocks within the project, whether new or existing, are designed for a maximum speed of 25 mph.

St. Louis’ Mayor Slay should take a bold step by sending out a RFP (Request for Proposals) to develop this embarrassing site into a mixed-use LEED-certified neighborhood. In a somewhat related matter, the Missouri legislature recently passed legislation aimed at large scale redevelopment of areas in need (75 acre minimums) without any real development criteria other than the minimum size. The state needs to revisit this issue, incorporating many of the guidlines for development encouraged by the drafters of this rating system.

Click here to visit the USBGC’s website on LEED for Neighborhood Development.